Turbo Junkies At CC Nationals

We locked up the brakes on the Cushman and piled out like the first wave at Normandy when we saw these cars lined up in the shade at the CC Nationals. No, the chrome wasn't gleaming, no, the rims weren't the latest aluminum hoops, and no, these guys weren't looking to be seen. And to the average dude with 40 Series FloMos and a small-block on the cruise loop, they weren't noticed at all. But a peek under the hood, where there was one, revealed hardware with a specific purpose in mind. Some CC staffers have secret secondary lives in LA, and we know moneymakers when we see them.

The Black Car

Brian Lofquist is part of a larger group of a dozen or more guys with fast street cars in the St. Paul, Minnesota, area. They meet on Snelling Avenue, a big four-laner with a pleasant green divider that connects the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and Interstate 94 in nearby Roseville. During the summer, you'll see Brian and his friends parked at the HarMar Mall most Friday and Saturday nights. It's there you will meet guys like Brian, Derek Peterson, and Tremayne Brown. These are guys with similar interests and serious turbocharged cars.

"I know these guys through the car scene and street racing," says Brian. "You end up talking to people and racing them."

Brian bought a '62 Ford Falcon when he was 16 and started to build. While he learned some things about street machines, the car proved to be too much and it was shipped to his uncle, so Brian could start again.

"I liked the body style, so I picked up this '63 through a local forum's For Sale area," Brian says. "Saw one little picture and decided to take it."

The Falcon had a Heidts front end, four-wheel disc brakes, and some new parts in the trunk. Before long it also had a 302 small-block, then a string of different engines as Brian looked for power. "I'd pull it out of the driveway every spring with a different combination," says Brian. "I was never satisfied with what it was. I wanted to be fast. I wanted a fast street car."

At some point, Brian started working at SharaDon Performance in Hugo, Minnesota, and swapped in a 460-inch Ford big-block for even more power. All along, Brian and his friends kept hearing about a guy with a dump truck turbo and a Fox Mustang. His name was Tremayne, and his car would change everything.

Tech Notes

Who: Brian Lofquist

What: '63 Ford Falcon

Where: St. Paul Park, MN

Engine: The 5.3L V8 is from a rolled '01 Chevy Silverado and little has changed. Everything on the bottom end is stock. The heads are factory 706 castings with eBay torque-to-yield head bolts and a pair of Chevrolet Performance LS9 head gaskets to put up with 24 psi of boost from the BorgWarner 75mm S475 turbo. The roller cam is from Futral and has 232/242 duration and 0.595/0.585 lift at 0.050. The cam required a set of 7.420-inch Thunder Racing pushrods, and that's about it. The engine is managed by a GM computer and tuned by Brian using HP Tuner software.

Fuel: One trick to keeping a turbo engine from self-destruction is high octane and cool pistons. Brian uses a Walbro 255 pump assisted with a boost-referenced Aeromotive A1000 to feed the combo a big load of E85 that can be had from the local gas pump for about $3 per gallon.

Fabrication: Yes, those are flipped truck manifolds connected to the turbo with a 5-inch downpipe. Simple.

Power: At 18 psi of boost, the LS makes 623 hp and the Falcon can run 10.16 at 138. At 24 psi the LS makes 748 hp. No track numbers on the big tune-up—yet.

Transmission: The LS is connected to a Rossler TH400 with a BTE 5,000-rpm converter.

Rear: This a leaf-spring car with a set of CalTracs bars and a Ford 9-inch with 31-spline Strange axles and a set of 3.50:1 gears on a spool. Those are Racestar wheels with 28.0/9.0-15 M/T ET Drag meats.

Front: The Falcon already had a Heidts front end with GM single-piston calipers and rotors. The rear brakes are also from GM. The shocks are from AFCO.

Speed: You may be wondering how Brain knows he can run 10s when he has no safety gear. He did at a closed track. And by closed, we mean the last day of the season at a track where he knows people.

Interior: The seats are from an Econoline van. The fire-suppression system is a bottle of water. The sound system is a 5-inch downpipe. The gauges are from Auto Meter.

Cool: Brian bought the car for $700 and did everything himself.

Thanks: Dad. SharaDon Performance. Air pressure.

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The Red Car

Derek Peterson had a Fox with a 12.5:1-compression, 331-inch small-block that ran on E85 out of the pump. He bought it when he was 17 and toasted three Ford small-blocks looking for more power. "I kept blowing up these things, but I was 18 so I didn't have any money for good parts," says Derek. Eventually, he built a strong short-block and almost seemed satisfied with the combination. At the same time, Brian was swapping the 460 for a stock 5.3L and a Chinese turbo and walked right by Derek and his expensive 331. What happened? Tremayne Brown, that's what.

"Tremayne had been playing with turbos from a Freightliner on a dirty gen-one Chevy," says Derek. "He had a 100-gallon tank from Harbor Freight full of water-meth. It would spool for a country mile then it was the fastest thing you've ever seen. For a car that looks so ratty, it runs flawlessly."

Tremayne influenced both Derek and Brian that turbos make the car fast, and Brian had learned that the 5.3L LS engine was not only good but also cheap. Derek was paying attention and ditched the 331 for a 5.3L LS with a blow-through. "I had always used EFI, so I didn't know anything about carburetors," Derek says. "I would keep my foot in it and melt down pistons; it was a learning curve, but there are plenty of truck engines."

For Derek and Brian, it is simple hot rodding. They stand in parking lots and BS all summer and once in while go somewhere and find out who is fastest. "I raced Brian on the closing day at the track," Derek says. "Brian was blowing through his converter and was ahead of me and I went 10.30 at 134."

Tech Notes

Who: Derek Peterson

What: '90 Ford Mustang

Where: Blaine, MN

Engine: Yup, Derek also has a 5.3L LS engine with a turbo. The combo is similar to Brian's with LS9 head gaskets and stock heads. He added a Comp LS6 roller cam with 218/220 degrees of duration and 0.555/0.555 lift on a 118 LSA. The rocker arms and pushrods are from a 6.0L truck engine with "yellow" valvesprings. For boost, Derek uses a "Chinna GT45" turbo with twin 38mm wastegates and a 50mm BOV (blow-off valve). The turbo blows into an Extreme Velocity hat and an Edelbrock Victor Jr. and a 750 Holley carburetor. It also uses E85 from the pump. The engine is controlled by an MSD 6010 LS1/LS6 ignition box and tuned using MSD software and a FAST wideband O2. Derek puts a guess at 600 hp and 510 lb-ft of torque.

Fabrication: The LS has flipped truck exhaust manifolds with a homebuilt 2.5-inch hot side and a 4-inch downpipe.

Trans: The Fox uses a TH400 with a B&M 10-inch converter with a 3,600-rpm stall and a Trans Go shift kit.

Rollers: The skinnies are 15x4.5 Weld Draglites with 165R15 Michelins and the rears are 28.0/11.5-15 M/T ET Streets on 15x10s.

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The White Car

Tremayne Brown's Fox is no frills, and all speed. He's that guy who doesn't say a lot, and doesn't have to. His cars are fast and dirt cheap.

"I started turbos with a '70 Monte Carlo in 2003," says Tremayne. "It was a gen-one small-block on a blow-through with an old stock turbo from a 12.7L Detroit Diesel. It was big."

Tremayne was into the car with a friend when the other guy bailed out. He bought all the parts and installed them on his Fox Mustang.

"For the water-methanol, I bought a garden sprayer and used a Snow Performance nozzle," says Tremayne. "But that wasn't enough. I added the garden nozzle that came with the sprayer, and that was enough to frost up the intake on 20 pounds of boost hot lapping it all day long."

This wasn't a turnkey combo. Tremayne went through several blocks by cracking the lifter bores or simply splitting the block down the middle. "This was the cheapest way to have fun," Tremayne says. "The thing should be able to run 9s all day—it's whether or not the block will hold up. I drive it daily, even in the winter. It cruises on the freeway and gets good mileage."

The garden sprayer, diesel turbo, and big tank are gone now, but the ideas are still there. Tremayne has been working with the carburetor to get the A/F ratio safe and deliver enough fuel to make power using the BorgWarner S475, 75mm turbo. The engine is still a basic small-block Chevy with a mix of TRW and Speed Pro pistons (his words) and iron heads. The cam is a solid flat tappet, but he didn't seem to want to share all the specs, or maybe he doesn't care—boost fixes small camshafts and a host of other shortfalls.

Tremayne's technology is slightly behind Derek and Brian, but that doesn't mean his car isn't fast. He is estimating 800 hp and 700 lb-ft and has a huge bank of gauges so he can try to control the car. "On the freeway at 70 or 80 mph and you hit it down, it will smoke the tires," says Tremayne. "So I need to warm the tires to race it at 20 pounds." If you want to find out exactly how fast the car is, you'll have to find him on Snelling Avenue.

Tech Notes

Who: Tremayne Brown

What: '89 Ford Mustang

Where: Vadnais Heights, MN

Engine: The current engine is a gen-one 355-inch small-block Chevy with a one-piece rear main seal. It's been rebuilt with Summit Racing rings and King bearings, otherwise there are a lot of stock and older speed parts. The heads are iron Phase II from GM Performance's distant past with torque-to-yield head bolts. The intake is an Edelbrock Victor Jr. with a Demon 850-cfm carburetor using E85. The whole thing is fed by an Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump and a 75mm S475 BorgWarner turbo.

Transmission: The Mustang uses a GM Powerglide with a 2,600-rpm stall and a TCI transbrake. Up on the cam, the converter is more like 5,000 rpm, but the car doesn't blow through it at the track.

Fabrication: Tremayne is a CNC tubing bender by day, so he knows something about stainless bends. Richard Brown and Jon Solomonson helped get the exhaust and other race parts together.

Suspension: The stock four-link hasn't changed; he just added new shocks and some homemade Heim joints for some strength. The front struts are 90/10s.

Rear: The 8.8 has 2.75:1 gears and 33-spline Strange axles.

Wheels: In the front are Weld Draglites and in the rear are Center Lines. The meats are 28.0/11.5-15 M/T ET Drag.

Interior: The dashboard is "cardboard and Bondo." The carpet is "gray with black footprints." The paint is "what's left of white."